Staplers using wire staples for attaching, for example, sheets of paper together are a necessary tool in the modern office. Manually operated staplers are in widespread use largely due to their modest price and outstanding reliability.
However, some force is required to operate a manual stapler, especially when driving a staple through a thick stack of paper. To use a manual stapler, it must first be conveniently positioned on a table or desk so that the user can orient his hand and arm to exert sufficient force to drive the staple. Alternatively, the stapler can be grasped in the hand and squeezed between the fingers and palm to drive the staple. Either way requires that the stapler itself be repeatedly handled and/or moved, creating unnecessary and time-consuming operations.
Electrically powered staplers eliminate the aforementioned disadvantages associated with manual staplers in that the electric stapler need not be handled by the user. It can be located in any convenient location on a desk or table, far enough away from the user so as not to clutter his or her workspace and yet within easy reach to allow the user to extend a stack of paper into the stapler to effect attachment of the sheets in the stack.
Such electrical staplers are not without their problems, however, the most serious of which is their propensity to jam when overburdened with too many sheets in a stack. The jams tend to be difficult to clear, and the paper is often caught in the stapler and mangled by attempts to release it. There is clearly a need for an electric stapler which will not jam when overburdened and yet will continue to operate immediately after being overburdened by attempting to staple too thick a stack of paper together.